Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Welcome A Princess In March...


On March 16th, "The Princess and the Frog" Blu-Ray/DVD will be released...

If you haven't seen it yet (shame on you!), then this is your chance to take a look at a beautiful little fairytale that audiences loved... at least those that showed up to see it. The film got great reviews, but the audiences to needed to make it a hit didn't materialize. Partially due to the release schedule with all those large films around it and somewhat due to the term "Princess" most likely. But it's a very good film, one that you will enjoy and one that you should and will want to own.

Reserve yours today...

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

As of this weekend, PRINCESS AND THE FROG will pass the $100 million mark in domestic grosses. That's not shabby, though it's nowhere near a megahit.

Its foreign release pattern has barely begun. If this thing does another 100 million overseas - a strong possibility - then I'd call that a relative success.

What DIDN'T happen is that PRINCESS didn't bomb. That's as important as it being some runaway hit... Which might have happened had the film actually been better and less cliched. But it's a strong restart to the 2D division. They have nothing to be ashamed of, especially in light of the crazy competition and the insane fickleness of a marketplace so willing to soak up crap like Chipmunks 2. Ugh.

Anonymous said...

Does the company consider the performance of "Princess" as a reason not to make hand-drawn movies in the future?

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed The Princess and the Frog. Its not my most favorite animated film in the world, but it was still good. Its a shame that the film didn't do as well as hoped.

Makes me wonder if Rapunzel will suffer the same fate. (Though I am looking forward to it)

Perhaps audiences today are just getting tired of fairy tales. Perhaps they just want movies filled with "dreamy" vampires and "hip" movies about Chipmunks.

rpartible said...

I watched it a few weeks ago, and was kinda underwhelmed. Mainly because the music was sooo bleh. No personality, it didn't move the story along, and worse didn't give personality or insight to the characters. I really wish Lassiter would stop giving Randy Newman work. Not one of the songs from that soundtrack ever caught on. I can't even remember any of the tunes. Up until this past decade Disney's animated musicals had at least one or two memorable songs. I would say Mulan's "Reflection," was the last great song. I'm hoping Rapunzel will carry on that tradition. Putting Alan Menkin on that project was a step in the right direction.

Anonymous said...

To me it seemed like the musical numbers were forced, they just 'happened' with little buildup. The biggest difference between PatF and previous Disney films is that the songs in PatF were way SHORTER than other movies.

Due to them being short, and the feel that the songs were just "oh, new character, time to have a song!" made me feel as though they had to really work to make the movie a musical when it shouldn't have been etc...

Thomas Phillip said...

I still equate PatF to Little Mermaid in that when the Little Mermaid was first released it was not a smash box office hit, but instead, a steady money maker staying in the top ten and selling a lot of merchandise. Little Mermaid ultimately became a classic and I hope the same for PATF.

Honor Hunter said...

Sorry, but "The Little Mermaid" was a huge hit...

It did steady business over the long run sure, but it was a major hit from the get go. And it showed Disney you could attract the "Date" crowds, as they came in droves. Unfortunately, "P&F" is nowhere near that successful.

That doesn't mean that it's not a good movie, but rather, not on the level with Mermaid and B&B were. But it's miles ahead of most of the other animation out there and something for WDAS to be proud of.

But we'll see what happens over time...

Youzney said...

Well I'd just like the chance to actually see it in the cinema. Its a bit of an insult really that the DVD is nearly out in the US before the cinema release begins over here.

Disney hates me.

Doopey said...

I'm glad to see you finally acknowledge that "PatF" flopped. And as much as I love the film, it did flop. I disagree with people who criticize the music, however. Newman cleverly uses jazz, zydeco, and gospel to match the New Orleans setting. The one flaw is that it lacks a strong signature theme song, like "Part of Your World" or "Beauty and the Beast," but it's a beautiful film. I think its failure is largely due (once again) to poor placement in the marketplace and poor marketing.

Honor Hunter said...

I never said it flopped...

It's a disappointment, not a failure. There are several good things related to the film, like the merchandise which has remained quite high. The fact that its budget was way lower than "Bolt." And other things as well. But the box office was much less than wanted.

That doesn't mean that it failed at all...

Anonymous said...

Let's not forget that 100s of movies (and their makers) would be considered roaring hits with this kind of gross. It's all a matter of expectations. I'm confident PatF will take its place among the cherished Disney classics. I don't agree with those who knock the music; I felt it was well matched to the story and its settings. Don't forget that the film is a milestone just for showcasing a Princess of color. From what I've seen, the merchandising is a surefire hit.

Justin said...

I agree with your statement 100% Honor. The box office is disappointing, but the movie was not a failure or a flop.

Anonymous said...

Best film of the year IMO ("Up" is a very close second)...Great songs, good story, right up there with the animated movies of Disney's heyday...can't wait for the DVD

Anonymous said...

I have to say that my family and I thoroughly enjoyed the film (as well as my wife's father who came along for one viewing). My family and I have seen it three times and may see it one more time on the big screen.

I certainly am not the main target audience for this film in some respect (30-something technologically-minded teacher of Catholicism). But I enjoyed the music, the villains, the various characters, esp. Ray (I have a small stuffed Ray in my home office which I work primarily out of). My children have enjoyed the various merchandise (from figurines to clothes).

I wish this movie was a greater box office success but it wasn't. And as a commenter above noted, the Little Mermaid was not a box-office smash either. According to Box Office Mojo, it was ranked 13th among top grossing films with 83 million. The top grossing film in 1989 was Batman at 251 million. 83 million in 1989 adjusted to inflation is approximately 137 million today (give or take a few million).

Just to give some other perspective. Beauty and the Beast grossed 145 million in its initial run in 1991. Aladdin grossed 217 million in 1992.

I look forward to getting Princess and the Frog on Blu-ray in March - right around my birthday!

Rafa said...

Shame it's taking so long to get there but..

I believe the movie will find its place in the WDAS classics, where that place is may not be where people expected, and it may not be as much of a success or as well remembered as Snow White or Little Mermaid, but.. It's going to be incredibly hard to do that anyway - the pedestal is so high already.
But it will find its place, somewhere just underneath maybe on the next step.

Tevez said...

Any chance of a new tie-in short to go on the DVD??

Probably about the firefly or the aligater?

rpartible said...

You can't compare the box-office of TPaTF to Little Mermaid. I remember back when Mermaid came out. The highest grossing animated films were only reaching the 40 million dollar range. For Mermaid to reach 89 million was phenomenal. Today animated films are consistantly in the top 5 grossing films of the year. I understand people wanting TPaTF to succeed so that 2-D animation won't go away, but in order for that to happen you're going to need a true classic like the Little Mermaid to come along. Hopefully Rapunzel will be that film.

Thomas Phillip said...

Honor Please correct me if I young. ( and I mean it )

When Princess and the Frog opened to wide release it grossed $24,208,916 making it number one at
the box office.

When Little Mermaid opened it made $6,031,914 number 3 on box office charts. In today’s numbers little mermaid’s opening gross would equate to 10,345,585.08 which is pretty close to Princes and the frog.

Looking at both domestic grosses I’d say the two animated films are pretty similar when it comes to numbers. Artistically, P&G is just as good as Little Mermaid.

Anonymous said...

I'm more interested in another DVD coming out that day - Astro Boy. Now THAT was an under-appreciated, very enjoyable movie. Beat the carp out of Princess IMO. Princess was bargain-basement Disney, strictly cheapquel-level. Astro Boy was touching, involving, beautifully animated, and had a much better musical score (even though it wasn't a musical, its background music was exhilarating.) I'll spend my bucks on the little robot boy, not Disney's first green, oops sorry, black princess.

Kevin Willis said...

Any problems with Princess had nothing to do with it being hand drawn. The art was uniformly gorgeous throughout the entire movie. If anything was cliched (and sometimes a little boring), it was the music. Sheesh!

Disney needs to re-watch Little Mermaid and Beauty & The Beast to refresh themselves on how musical numbers are done. And then making check with the folks who wrote the great musical tracks for Southpark: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. When I saw that, I thought that is what a new Disney movie should be, just without the profanity, gross gags, and other scatological humor. The opening number? Mmm'kay? What Would Brian Boytano do? Those were great--great!--musical numbers. The princess and the frog mostly underwhelmed, although it was a fine film.

I watched the first part of UP again last night, and I can see when Princess underperformed in contrast to UP. It just wasn't quite there. About in the same category as Mulan: very, very good, but not great. Not something that, like UP, irredeemably wins you over, forever, in the first 15 minutes. Not something I wanted to see again right away, like when I first saw The Little Mermaid. Good, like Mulan: hmm. That was fun. I'll watch that again, sometime.

rpartible said...

@Dusty

Again, you have to look at the times in which The Little Mermaid came out. It only opened in 994 theaters as opposed to TPaTF which opened in 3,475 theaters. Back then animation was only something little kids watched. Unless it was fantasy based, like the Ralph Bakshi movies, which appealed to geeky, teen boys and men. American Tale back in 1986 made 47 million and that had Steven Spielberg's name behind it. The Little Mermaid was the first animated film to not only harken back to the old Disney films, but surpass them by being a true modern musical, when everyone was proclaiming musicals were dead, thanks in part to MTV and music videos. And here was an animated DISNEY film which came out and had everyone falling in love with the music. I remember how uncool Disney was back in the 80's. The Little Mermaid changed all that. Unless you lived back then, you really cannot underestimate the impact of The Little Mermaid. I would say Oliver and Company is a better comparison to TPaTF, than The Little Mermaid. Which would be a pretty fair comparison if Repunzal turns out to be a homerun.

Anonymous said...

The animation was really bad and many times of model.
The character designs were totally boring as the story,the music and the characters.
Home on the range wasn't a masterpiece but was well crafted and had nice songs.

100 milion dollars are much for a theatrical release of a "direct-to video" quality project.

Anonymous said...

To those of you who are saying bad things about TPatF, you oughta be ashamed of yourselves!

You're are obviously not true Disney fans at all!

rpartible said...

True fans will continue to hold Disney to a higher level of excellence. By settling for mediocrity you cheapen the brand name, and cause said company or individual to decline to the point of irrelevance. Disney isn't a child to be coddled, it's a company that needs to continually outdo itself and it's rivals in order to stay competitive.

Anonymous said...

Knock it off, Rossano.

Just because some of us like certain things does not make us "defenders of mediocrity" (that moron Al Lutz should be shot for creating such idiotic terms).

Just because you think something is not up to your personal standards does not automically mean that it's awful. Not everyone is going to share your views.

After all, beauty is really in the eye of the beholder.

rpartible said...

Said the person who hides behind anonymity. I never said TPaTF was awful, just not on the same level as the Little Mermaid, but then very few things are. I'm just responding to the person claiming we are not true fans. Everyone has a right to their own personal opinions, and I did not attack anyone who did, unlike you. If you have valid opinions state it like everyone else rather than attack those who do. This is after all a forum for discussion. You can't try to shut people up just because you disagree.